


Lost in the mist

by Anonymous



Category: Naruto
Genre: Adventure, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Pirate, Complicated Relationships, F/M, Magic, Pirates, Reconciliation, Revenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-13
Updated: 2021-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-16 22:54:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 16,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29090133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: It took twelve years for Captain Sakura Haruno to gather the materials for her revenge against the one who betrayed her. Her revenge was within her grasp, but fate had other plans for her.Sakura must choose which was more important: killing the one who betrayed her or saving the world?
Relationships: Haruno Sakura/Hoshigaki Kisame
Comments: 1
Kudos: 6
Collections: Five Figure Fanwork Exchange 2020





	Lost in the mist

**Author's Note:**

  * For [NekoMida](https://archiveofourown.org/users/NekoMida/gifts).



> _Ryūjin ('dragon god')_ : god of the oceans and seas found in Japanese mythology & folklore

Sakura stared intently at the fog that surrounded them from the moment they entered the seas near the Land of Water. Their destination was the Land of Lightning, not Water but the journey always brought them into the mist. Her hand tightened around the sail rope as she placed a foot on the wooden railing for leverage and leaned over the side of her ship. No amount of glaring from Sakura could part the fog that wrapped around them like a thick blanket.

It was quiet, unnaturally so, with not even the slapping of water on the hull of the ship or the rush of wind in her hair. The _Shannaro_ glided through the calm waters with ease. So soundlessly and smoothly that it worried Sakura. Silence in these waters always meant trouble.

‘Tenten?’

‘Yes, Captain,’ replied Tenten from behind her.

‘How are the crew faring?’

The lack of response was telling and had Sakura frowning before she deliberately stopped. She didn’t need Ino telling her the next time she saw her, anymore than she already did, that her wide forehead was more susceptible to frown lines. Sakura turned to Tenten, who had her hand on the hilt of her cutlass, an indication of the sense of danger her Quartermaster felt.

‘The crew is getting anxious.’ Tenten stepped closer. In the almost silence of the sea, words were easily carried by the wind like cherry blossoms in the air. ‘They’ve heard the stories, bloody, death-filled stories about the Monster of the Hidden Mist that roam these waters.’

Sakura pursed her lips at the name, unable to keep the frown from her brow this time. Pirates were a suspicious lot. Everything must have a story, especially the Monster, and Sakura had heard her fair share of them. The stories told of a half-human, half-shark born to a woman who had fallen in love with the sea. Sometimes the stories told of a merperson. One who had made a deal with the kraken for legs in exchange for their heart. But instead of the deal they’d bargained for, they were cursed to sail the seas for daring to wish for legs and punished for dreaming of walking on land. Then there were the romantics, the stories of a soulless water demon who had made great sacrifices and grand gestures for a long, lost love.

The tales ranged from tame to wild, from uninspired to imaginative, but as was the way with every story, it had a beginning rooted in fact. There weren’t many who knew the Monster of the Hidden Mist when he was a man.

Sakura’s hand went to the space just below her collar bone. She gripped the ring that hung around her neck on a thin, but strong silver chain and hidden beneath her shirt. The ring was the only personal possession of value she had from that time in her life. It was the one thing she couldn’t let go of.

The fog was thinning and a sigh left Sakura as she adjusted her hat and squinted into the distance. They sailed out of the fog where the air was clearer, less stifled and suffocating. Another journey through the mist where she and her crew had made it out alive. She jumped down onto the deck. ‘You can tell the crew to buck up and ready the sails, we’re going to arrive in the Land of Lightning in one piece after all.’

‘Aye Captain.’

Sakura watched Tenten shoot off briskly down the deck, shouting at the top of her lungs for all hands on deck. She turned back to the thinning fog, hand gripping the ring in a tight fist, and heart heavy with disappointment in her chest.

***

They docked at the small, but growing port town of Raito. Sakura climbed onto the rickety wooden dock and tossed a coin at a kid who had already secured their row boat. She tugged her hat further down over her head. Tenten did the same, hand resting by her hip and near her cutlass.

‘This should only take an hour,’ murmured Sakura as they wandered away from the noisy docks and onto the dirty streets.

‘That’s plenty of time for the crew to restock.’ Tenten kept her eyes on a burly man who walked past her with a disgusted look. She growled back. ‘Plenty of time for us to get into trouble here too.’

Sakura couldn’t deny how right Tenten was. Port Raito held a neutral position in the Land of Lightning. Despite its neutrality, it was still a pirate port and had all manner of people frequenting it on both sides of the law. The most interesting were those who fell in the middle. There was always someone who knew someone, and those were the kind of people Sakura needed. It also meant a lot of people with bones to pick and Sakura had lost track of just how many people had a bone to pick with her.

‘Really? Of all places you decided to meet him _here?_ ’ Tenten groaned as they approached the _Three Admirals_.

‘I didn’t choose the location,’ grumbled Sakura. She was just as unhappy as Tenten to set foot in a pub frequented by naval officers. Disgraced naval officers, but naval officers nonetheless. ‘It’ll be an in and out meeting.’

‘You said that about the Land of Whirlpools and look what happened there.’

‘How was I supposed to know that we were sailing into a whirlpool.’ Sakura pushed the heavy wooden door and entered the dimly lit pub.

‘I would have thought the name gave it away Captain,’ said Tenten in a lowered voice.

Sakura rolled her eyes and ignored Tenten. They moved through the pub, thankful for the dingy and dejected atmosphere. No one paid them any mind. The patrons didn’t even blink as they walked past, either staring down into the depths of their tankards or keeping to themselves.

At the back of the pub and hidden in a shadowy corner was Sakura’s contact. Her contact leaned back against the wall. It was as if he had melted into the shadows with only his red eyes to reassure Sakura that he was really there. She weaved between the other patrons and sat down opposite him at the table.

‘Have you got what I asked?’ she asked without preamble, leaning in close when a group of men sat down at the table next to them.

Her contact reached inside his cloak and withdrew a cork stoppered bottle. The bottle was small, about the length of her forefinger. It held the tiniest drop of clear liquid inside. He placed it in the middle of the table, but held onto it with his left hand.

‘I believe this was a trade,’ he said calmly, almost softly, despite the deep tenor of his voice.

From the pocket of her coat Sakura took out a ring with a thick silver band, topped with a polished ruby. She placed it down on the table and covered it with her hand. In concerted movements, they let go of their items at the same time and took what they wanted. She pocketed the bottle quickly.

‘I’m surprised you’re letting go of this ring after all these years.’

He slipped the band onto the ring finger of his right hand. He flexed his hand, the ruby gleamed unnaturally in the low light. It was too late for regrets and Sakura tilted her head at him, eyebrow raised in apparent indifference. She pushed away the feeling that it was a bad idea to trade the ring. It didn’t matter. She needed that mermaid tear.

‘Leverage,’ said Sakura. He and the ring would become someone else’s problems. ‘It’s as simple as that.’

He gave a small huff of laughter and smirked at her. ‘You must really need to find _him_.’

Sakura clenched her jaw. Her hand twitched to fiddle with the ring around her neck, but she forced it still and flattened her palm against the scuffed tabletop.

‘You better hurry up, because you’re running out of time,’ her contact said. ‘There’s something coming.’

She frowned at his mysterious words, but before she could answer, he stood up and seemed to sink backwards into the darkness. A flash of steel distracted her and she glanced over at the three men sitting at the table next to her.

‘Give my regards to my brother when you see him.’

‘Tell him yourself, Itachi.’ She turned back to him only to find his seat empty. Tenten shook her head in confusion. Itachi had disappeared.

Something black fluttered at the corner of Sakura’s eyes and she swivelled in her seat to see a raven perched on the pub’s rafters, staring down at her with a red beady eye before it flew out through a small opened window. She shook her head. Dramatic as usual.

A thud from the table next to them had Sakura looking over at the three men again. One of them couldn’t stop their foot from tapping, while another hadn’t stopped drinking from his empty tankard, and the last, the biggest of the three, stared right back at her.

‘Let’s go,’ she murmured to Tenten. ‘We’ve got what we needed.’

She hurried out of the pub and onto the streets. The urge to look over her shoulder was strong. She didn’t have to. They were being followed. The lumbering footsteps behind them were loud enough.

They slipped into the crowd, effortlessly merging into the press of bodies. Their faces became one of the many dreary, tired faces of the Raito masses as she and Tenten moved with the crowd in the direction of the town square. Not even their stalkers could fight against the tide of the dejected and downtrodden to reach them.

Up ahead, between a grubby shop front and the well-kept doorway of a popular Molly-house, was a side alley. Sakura tugged at Tenten’s arm. Together they shuffled out of the crowd and into the alley.

Sakura straightened her coat and adjusted her hat. ‘That should be the last we see—’

Pain exploded at the back of Sakura’s head. The ground rose fast in a spinning black blur as her legs crumpled beneath her.

***

The bindings around Sakura’s wrists were painfully tight and her fingers tingled with pins and needles. The rope chafed her skin as she fidgeted, trying in vain to loosen the bindings. The burlap sack over her head was thick and doused her in stifling hot darkness. Whoever had caught her and Tenten were taking no chances.

She breathed forcibly through her nose, groaning as nausea swept through her. The familiar undulating sway of a ship at sea told her that she was no longer on land. With each rock of the sea, her stomach rebelled along with the pounding throb at the back of her head. She should have seen it coming, but in her excitement at having the final piece of her revenge in her hand, she had become careless.

Someone shifted beside her and she turned her head in the direction of the presence. ‘Tenten?’

‘Right here, Captain.’

‘What do you want to drink when we get out of this mess?’ Sakura strained to hear, hoping that her ears could pick up something through the thick material.

‘With the way our day’s going, it could be a rum situation or a straight shot kind of thing.’

That didn’t help narrow down a thing. In the time she and Tenten had sailed together, they had come up with a code for when they got into tight spots. Rum for their surly pirate brethren. Sakura was a pirate herself, but she had her disagreements just as much as the next pirate. The straight shots were the Navy. Now that would be a problem since she was wanted in every country with a naval force.

Sakura sighed and leaned back against a something hard, wincing when her head tapped against the surface. She had no idea how long they had been out at sea, or how long it would take for the rest of the crew to know they were missing. If they even knew at all.

The muffled rattling of keys followed by the slamming of a door filtered through the sack over Sakura’s head. At the first touch of hands beneath her arms, Sakura kicked out with as much strength as she could muster, smirking in satisfaction when her foot drove into something soft. The hands withdrew immediately her with a pained yell.

‘Fuck! Whose bright idea was it to not tie her legs?’

Her head snapped to the side as a slap struck her face. She swallowed down the bile that rose with the urge to throw up. An iron grip hauled her to her feet by her arms. She stumbled into a walk, shoved into moving by a large hand at her back.

‘You must have a death wish, pirate,’ snarled the voice behind her. ‘Kicking an officer like that. You’re lucky I’ve been ordered by the higher-ups not to kill you, otherwise I’d have rammed my sword through your worthless guts.’

Sakura stayed silent, head down as she walked carefully, almost tripping on the first step of a set of stairs. The man had revealed too much to her. The familiar accent in his words tugged at Sakura’s heart, reminding her of the home of her past. The sound of the sea got louder as she ascended. Her clothes rippled in the wind when the stairs levelled into the ship’s deck. She could hear the shouts and yells of a crew at sea.

The hard deck beneath her feet turned plush and soft, and she was forced to her knees. The sack was ripped off her head. Sakura blinked furiously as her eyes adjusted to the light. The carpet beneath her knees was a rich red, threaded with golden orange and unnecessarily ornamental for a ship. She looked up to see an old friend of Tenten’s. It could only mean she was on the _Byakugan._

‘Captain Hyūga,’ Sakura paused, noticing the thick band of gold lace at his coat sleeve and the insignia — a crown, two crossed swords and the Konoha leaf — on his shoulder board, ‘or should I say _Commodore_ Neji Hyūga. I believe congratulations are in order.’

‘A pirate’s congratulations are meaningless, so I would save your breath Sakura Haruno.’

‘That’s Captain Sakura Haruno to you,’ she corrected.

A muscle in Hyūga’s jaw twitched as she saw him clench his teeth. He stood up and walked from behind his desk with calculated steps, his boots muffled by the thick carpet that lined the floor of the Captain’s cabin.

‘The infamous pirate “captain” finally caught,’ he stopped in front of Sakura, ‘on land of all places.’

Sakura shrugged her shoulders and smiled charmingly. ‘What can I say, I’m made for the sea.’

He stared down at her, his face blank and expressionless. His long brown hair was tied up, a few strands fell across his face in a way that might have looked dashing for anyone else who wasn’t Sakura. For her, it only added to his pompous self-importance.

‘So tell me,’ started Hyūga. ‘How does the daughter of the esteemed Lord Haruno and the apprentice to Queen Tsunade of Konoha come to be one of the most wanted pirates of the seas?’

Sakura tilted her head to the ceiling of the cabin, contemplating his question. She turned back and smirked. ‘How did you end up with that stick up your ass?’

‘Disappointing.’ Hyūga shook his head. Despite his disapproving tone, his face remained free of any emotion. ‘Your father is probably rolling in his grave at the person you become.’

Sakura’s bound hands curled into fists at the mention of her father. She glared at Neji Hyūga. Her shoulders pulled back and her chin jutted out in overt rebellion against everything he represented. Nobility. A stark reminder of her past. ‘Dearest dad is down at the bottom of the sea, so I guess rolling will be easier in water.’

‘How blasé you are when you speak ill of the dead.’ Hyūga tutted at her and reached into the pocket of his breeches. Held between his forefinger and thumb was the bottle with the drop of mermaid tear. ‘Will you still be so blasé if I tipped this out?’

Sakura jerked to her feet only to be pushed back down, knees thudding against the floor. Her heart pounded in her chest and she bared her teeth. ‘Don’t you fucking dare.’

For the first time since she was forced into the room, the frozen expression on his face melted and he smirked at her. ‘So it is important—’

The ship lurched violently, silencing whatever Hyūga was about to say as he stumbled back into his desk. The bottle flew from his hands and Sakura pounced forward, scraping her chin against the carpet as she closed her mouth on the bottle before it rolled away. The ship tipped backwards at a frightening angle. Books fell from the shelves. Sailing instruments clattered to the floor. It was as if the ship had run against a reef, but no reef was high enough to cause the ship to tip like this.

‘Commodore!’

‘What the hell is happening out there?!’ Hyūga stormed past Sakura, ignoring her completely.

She rolled over and the blood in her face drained. Behind the men gathered at the entrance of the cabin was no sea creature Sakura had ever seen before in her life. From what Sakura could see, it looked humanoid, but that was where the resemblance ended. It was monstrous in size and appearance. Its skin was a tan colour and its hulking head loomed over the front of the ship. At the top of its head was one large eye with a black sclera, a white iris with rings and no discernible pupil. In the middle of its face was a gaping mouth filled with rows and rows of sharp teeth.

A screeching roar filled the air. There was nothing Sakura could do, but lay curled up into a ball, eyes closed tight as she waited for the unearthly cry to pass.

‘Don’t just stand there! Move!’ yelled Hyūga. He unholstered his pistols and ran out onto the main deck.

The cabin wall splintered and Sakura rolled to shield her face as broken pieces of wood showered on top of her. Whatever had broken through the cabin moved at surprising speed, whipping back and forth like a tail. Sakura shuffled on her front, boots scrabbling against the carpet to push her forward and out from under the wood. She rolled onto her back and kicked up onto her feet.

Sakura ran, blood rushing through her veins as the creature’s many tails crashed down on the ship. It ripped the masts like twigs and batted officers into the sea like they were merely toys. Pistols and muskets fired at the creature’s face with no effect whatsoever. All it seemed to do was irritate it.

With her arms tied, there was nothing Sakura could do but run and avoid being crushed whilst the battle played out in front of her. A cannon ball whizzed through the air and landed in the creature’s eye. The creature howled and its arms released the ship. Sakura’s stomach jolted and she fell to her knees as the front of the ship crashed back into the water.

‘Captain!’

For a second time that day, Sakura was hauled to her feet. Tenten’s face was pale, brown eyes so wide they could have popped out. She spun Sakura round and cut through the bindings.

‘Come on, Captain!’ Tenten pointed to the _Shannaro_ which had lined itself next to the _Byakugan_ and was firing cannon after cannon at the creature. ‘We’re getting out of here!’

Sakura didn’t need to be told twice. She took the bottle out of her mouth and shoved it back into her coat pocket. Whatever that thing was, it was destroying the _Byakugan_ and she was not going down with it.

She still had her own monster to find.

***

The swamps were always dark and dank, wallowed in humidity that made Sakura's hair stick, sweaty and uncomfortable, to the back of her neck. It was too quiet for a place of nature, and Sakura gripped the side of the small boat as Tenten rowed. The oar cut through the smooth water, the splashes and droplets of water from the oar broke the unnatural stillness of the Lost Swamp.

They rowed along the twisting canals of the bayou, past blinking eyes that followed them from between the mangrove trees, hidden behind the thick moss that hung from the branches like grey beards. Sakura turned, but the eyes blinked away and left a prickling unease at the back of her neck. She shivered despite the heat. The swamp hid creatures more ancient and terrifying then the one she chased.

She recalled the creature that had attacked the _Byakugan_ and stamped down the fear it caused in her. They had escaped back onto her own ship while the Konoha Navy was too busy fighting for their lives. By then, the creature had already sunk back into the water. The moment her feet landed on deck, she had ordered for full canvas to put as many leagues between them and that cursed thing. She did not want to know what that thing was.

The row boat lurched forward suddenly and Sakura was pulled out of her thoughts. It moved silently through a gap in the trees and into an enclosed part of the swamp where towering, bald cypresses surrounded in a tight embrace. In the middle of the swamp lake was a large wooden shack on stilts. The row boat stopped next to the ladder that led up to the front door of the Witch of the Lost Swamp. Sakura hated coming here, but a need was a need. She stood up carefully. The boat stayed stable beneath her feet as if it was beached, and she climbed up the ladder with Tenten following closely.

The door swung open in a silent invitation for Sakura to step through. Her hand went to the hilt of her sword and she walked into the shack with careful steps. The door closed with a sharp click of the latch behind them. Sakura stepped further inside, stopping just in front of a large round table that dominated the middle of the room. The surface of the table was marked and burned with the ancient lines of divination. She held onto her sword. With slow and careful movements, her eyes took in the room and moved from the bookshelves that lined the walls, the jars and cages that hung from the ceilings, before finally reaching a curtained doorway at the far side of the room.

‘Sakura Haruno.’ A voice came from behind the ragged curtains and Sakura felt Tenten shift behind her. ‘What have I told you about darkening my door?’

A hand brushed the curtain aside and revealed a woman in a purple dress. The woman approached Sakura, bare feet stepping quietly against the rough wood flooring of the shack. The Witch’s eyes were a mysterious teal shade and they fixed Sakura to the spot. She could do nothing, but wait frozen in place.

‘Hello Ino,’ greeted Sakura with a nervous smile.

Ino looked at her with a bored expression. ‘What did I say?’

‘That I shouldn’t darken your doorway until I have what you want.’

The boredom on Ino’s face transformed into a sweet smile. She held out her hand. ‘That’s right.’

Sakura went into her coat and pulled out the bottle Itachi had given her in Port Ratio. ‘Here.’ She placed it in Ino’s hand, but added before letting go of the bottle, ‘now give me what I want in return.’

‘Tut, tut, tut,’ clucked Ino. She shook her head and walked past Sakura to a bookshelf at the back of the room. From the various jars of pickled animals, scrolls of parchment, and worn books, Ino picked out a tinier bottle of white . ‘You need to remember that the world doesn’t revolve around you and your Admiral.’

A stony expression fell over Sakura’s face at the title. She clenched her hands into fists. ‘Ino, enough of your games.’

A shrill laugh left Ino and she looked over her shoulder. ‘Life has always been a game, Sakura. You just need to know how to play it.’

‘Ino,’ said Sakura in warning. ‘I mean it. Nothing is going to come between me and my goal.’

Ino’s teal eyes flickered with a glow as her magic crackled to life and sparked into the air. But as suddenly as it appeared, the magic faded and her eyes returned to normal. She turned serious, a warning to Sakura not to push her luck. ‘You should be careful, something evil preys on the seas. Can’t you feel how restless the waters are?’

The images of the one-eyed creature and her own personal monster warred in her mind. Her decision wavered. ‘I think we know exactly what that evil is.’

‘You’ve been chasing the same thing for most of your life that you’ve forgotten what is _truly_ evil.’ Ino moved closer to Sakura and grasped her chin between a finger and thumb, tilting her head to examine the carpet burn and the bruise on her cheek. ‘I believe you have already encountered that evil. They call it the Ten-Tails.’

Ino’s hand glowed and the throbbing pain on Sakura’s face faded. The pain had disappeared, but Sakura’s unease only intensified. She didn’t need to have magic to know when something did not belong to this world. The murderous intent that radiated from the creature had chilled her to the bone. ‘I’ve never seen something like that in all my years at sea.’

‘Not everything evil starts in this plane just as much not everything good lies on the other plane.’

Sakura frowned only for Ino to poke her forehead with her finger. ‘You’re making less and less sense as you get older, Ino-Pig.’

‘And your forehead’s getting more wrinkles with each year that passes.’

Sakura rolled her eyes at Ino’s teasing. Like the encounter with the Commodore, she was reminded of who she was before the world had put her on this path. Before all this. In what felt like another life, she and Ino used to fight and throw insults at each other in the way only two childhood friends did. It felt so far removed from who they were now and the truth was, they were older and no longer children of nobility.

The crinkles at the corner of Sakura’s eyes from squinting at the horizon only got more evident with each passing day. Growing old was a blessing for Sakura. It was the opposite for the witch. She watched her friend, noticed the brief pauses in Ino’s movements, the way her eyes glazed into glassy incoherency then to focused clarity. The curse of the Yamanaka family only got worse with age.

‘Tenten won’t you take a seat?’ Ino asked sweetly. She passed Tenten with the two glass bottles held in her hands.

Tenten shook her head from where she stood by the door. ‘I’m perfectly fine here.’

Ino cocked her head and squinted at Tenten. She shrugged. ‘Suit yourself, but remember, doors are made to be walked through, just standing by and watching others pass through will only lead to your heartbreak.’

A stormy looked flitted across Tenten’s face. She crossed her arms over her chest and stayed rooted where she was. Ino didn’t seem bothered by the response. She pulled out a stool and sat down at the large wooden. It was carved from the grey wood of an ancient cedar tree from the Land of Fire. The growth rings on the wood were so tightly packed that it was impossible to know just how old the cedar was.

‘I will give you what you ask for,’ said Ino. She placed the bottles on the table to her right. ‘A favour for a favour, but you are bound to follow another path and when you find your Admiral—’

‘When I find him, I will kill him.’

‘No, you will not!’ The room darkened as the shadows grew taller, the flames from the candles danced with a mind of its own, and Sakura took a step back, quailing at the oppressing pressure that emanated from Ino. All semblance of her friend was gone. An ethereal glow illuminated Ino’s eyes as her voice deepened, vibrating with an otherworldly quality that had Sakura shaking in her worn, leather boots. ‘Only Kisame Hoshigaki is able to sail to the other side. You kill him now and you doom us all.’

Ino beckoned for Sakura to sit opposite her. Sakura carefully sat down, hands pressed tightly to her stomach to avoid touching the table that thrummed with Ino’s magic. The buzzing in Sakura’s ears grew louder, incessant and unpleasant in its intensity like nails against a chalkboard. Then it stopped. Silence rang, elongated and loud like a single mournful peal of a bell. Ino’s lips moved silently as her hands clasped the empty air. Her hands moved above the table’s scorched surface, inscribed with geometric lines and shapes and characters that squirmed if looked at for too long. She stopped over the centre and unclasped her hands, fragments of bone and teeth clattered to the table.

‘It is written in the bones,’ said Ino, lost to her magic and controlled by powers beyond this world. ‘Your destiny has always faced south, encircled on the fourth finger of the left hand. You will journey with the Monster of the Hidden Mist and you will be weighed, but whether you return will be in the hands of Ryūjin themselves. If you do not return, then the battle is already lost and we will lose all that we know on the day before the next full moon.’

The ring burned where it rested on her skin, but she resisted the temptation to touch it, from seeking comfort in the solid shape as she stared at the patterns of the sun and moon etched into the border of the round table.

When Ino’s magic released Sakura, she stood up on tensed and jittery legs. The shadows receded, leaching from the walls and drawing back to dark places. The flames of the candles flickered once more before burning normally. The overbearing atmosphere lifted and Sakura gasped for air, sweat beaded at her temple as she was able to breathe without feeling like a chain had wrapped itself around her chest.

The glow to Ino’s eyes faded. Her shoulders dropped. Her back lost the rigidness that kept her upright like a puppet on strings. She sagged in her seat, body pitching backwards. Tenten darted forward and caught Ino before she fell off the stool. Ino slumped into Tenten’s arms for a moment before she righted herself, smiling gratefully at the other woman who hovered close by.

‘I’ll be fine, thank you,’ said Ino, voice hoarse, but normal again. There was a tiredness to her expression that hadn’t been present when they’d arrived. She brushed back her blonde hair with a shaking hand. ‘Just give me a minute.’

Sakura stared down at the table where the bones and teeth laid scattered with no meaningful or discernible pattern to her. She waited patiently, despite wanting to scream and kick at Ino’s words. This wasn’t what she asked for. She had come for the last thing she needed to exact her revenge. Now fate had kicked her off track. But she held it in and clenched her hands so tightly that her knuckles creaked. The last time she had ignored the mystic’s divination, she had almost lost her life. Since then, she had learned to grudgingly heed Ino’s warnings and advice.

‘You will do well to heed the warnings.’ It was if Ino had read her mind.

‘This isn’t what I came here for.’

‘You have no choice in the matter.’ Ino exhaled shakily. ‘We are pawns and mouthpieces to things not of this world, but you, Sakura Haruno? You have a touch of destiny about you.’

Sakura scoffed and scowled. ‘My destiny is to kill him.’

‘Your revenge will keep a little longer. It’s been years as it is.’ Ino gestured at the bottles, but instead of two separate bottles, it had transformed into one single bottle sometime during the divination. ‘Take it.’

The glass shimmered in the candlelight, moving between transparent and translucent depending on how Sakura looked at it. Inside was a single drop of shining liquid, fluid and silvery like quicksilver.

‘What is it?’

‘A mermaid tear shed not for sorrow, but for revenge and transformed by dust ground from a fragment of Ryūjin’s horn. It will give the user their heart’s desire.’

Sakura wrapped it up in a handkerchief and placed it carefully into the inside pocket of her coat.

‘Remember my words.’ Weariness bled into Ino’s tone. ‘When you find your Admiral, you must remind him of his promise as only he will know where to sail. Find him and find the way to defeat the Ten-Tails before we lose all we hold dear to us.’

‘What if I resist? I don’t have to listen to a word you say and kill him anyway.’

Ino stared blankly at Sakura and said simply, ‘then you will die.’

The back of Sakura’s neck tingled with danger, the kind that wanted to make her turn in anticipation of an enemy. It went deeper than that. She knew what Ino was saying was true. ‘I’ve been searching for years and have never found him. How do you find a monster hidden in the mist?’

‘You must lose yourself in order to find him, Sakura,’ said Ino. ‘All these years you have been sailing through the fog and mist with the intent to find him, but to find a monster you must lose your way and call his name.’

Sakura bristled with anger. ‘And you couldn’t have told me that before? It would have saved me years.’

A sly smirk curled the corner of Ino's lips. ‘You never asked the right question.’

Sakura rolled her eyes and went to the door. She and Tenten left the shack, and the heat and humidity of the swamp returned with a vengeance. It had been curiously cool inside the room and Sakura hadn’t even noticed. She climbed down into the boat and was more than ready to leave.

As Tenten rowed them away, Ino called to her from the doorway.

‘Sakura, there will be a time when you must choose between your heart and your life.’

‘What do you mean?’

Ino shrugged, smiling mysteriously in reply as she raised her hand in goodbye. The cypresses pressed in around them, swallowing the boat in a mass of branches and blocking Ino from view.

Sakura sighed heavily. It didn’t matter what she asked, Ino’s answers would only cause more questions. It was just the way the Witch of the Lost Swamp worked.

***

Ino’s reading and parting comment followed Sakura like an unwelcome spectre for the rest of the day. It haunted her sleep that night, bleeding into her dreams and twisting like apparitions that startled her awake in a cold sweat after a few hours of sleep.

Sakura ran a shaking hand through her pink hair. The nightmare left a lingering disquiet that tightened like fingers around her throat. The last time Sakura had felt like this after a nightmare had woken her up in the middle of the night was… She threw her blankets off her, shoved her feet into her boots and shrugged on her coat. She looped her leather baldric over her head, making sure her pistol was loaded and her cutlass was at her hip before she left her cabin.

She moved quickly and silently to the crews’ quarters. The loud snores and swinging hammocks calmed her. She breathed out in relief. Everyone was accounted for. That was what mattered. There was no way she could go back to sleep now. Not with panic thrumming in her veins. She left the crews’ quarters and dragged herself to the quarterdeck.

Sakura rested her elbows on the railing, head tilted up to the night sky to greet the thousands of stars shimmering above her. Her breath left her lungs at the sight. It didn’t matter how many times she did this, or how many nights passed, the stars still left her breathless. She had sailed these waters for years, knew the stars above like the back of her hand and still, she felt lost beneath the sky. She held onto her ring as her eyes tracked south, immediately finding _Same_ , the star that formed the constellation _Ebisu_ , the god of fisherman and luck.

It was by no means the most romantic of constellations, but Sakura could not look at that collection of stars without thinking about—

‘Not sleeping, Captain?’ Tenten stepped onto the quarterdeck with a crate of rum in her arms.

‘The rum might help.’

Tenten laughed and set the crate next to the ship’s wheel. She sat down on the deck, unstoppered a bottle of rum, and held it out.

Sakura took a hearty drink and she settled opposite Tenten. The ship was anchored for the night. The crew were asleep — _alive_. As far as Sakura knew, it was just her and Tenten and the stars above. Taking a few hours to share a drink with her quartermaster wouldn’t kill them.

‘It’s the Witch’s words that’s keeping you up.’

‘We don’t have long,’ said Sakura. There was only five days left before the full moon.

‘You believe her?’

Sakura sighed at the question. Tenten was both a seasoned sailor and a woman of pragmatism, who had never given much stock to superstition or magic, even when it hit her right in the face. She was the least superstitious of Sakura’s crew.

‘Do I need to remind you about what happened in Suna?’

Tenten shivered and shook her head. ‘Nope, no need, completely fine not to be reminded.’

‘I don’t want to talk about what Ino said.’ The end of the world was happening anyway. Sakura could take a moment’s reprieve before she faced the world again. ‘Tell me, what will you do with the riches you’ve saved over the years?’

Tenten smiled and leaned back against the helm. ‘I think it’ll be back on land for me.’

‘What? You a landlubber?’ teased Sakura. Tenten scowled at her.

‘I’ll head back to Konoha, set up a smithy by the port,’ said Tenten with a faraway look in her brown eyes. ‘You know, good honest work, shoeing horses, forging weapons and the sort.’

‘Nothing like the pirates’ life?’

‘Nah, once this is all over, I’m out.’ Tenten smiled ruefully before drinking a large mouthful of rum from the bottle.

Sakura fiddled with the neck of her own bottle. A pirate’s life without her quartermaster by her side? How would she survive? She had lost count of just how many times Tenten had been the voice of reason, level-headed and sharp even in the heaviest of storms. Without Tenten, Sakura would have made many more rash decisions, some of which probably would have ended with her sinking her ship and crew right into the claws of Ryūjin in the depths of the sea.

A pirate’s life wasn’t for everyone and Tenten had done her share by helping Sakura all those years ago. Sakura laughed, injecting some levity to the fact that she would one day lose Tenten to dry land. ‘Maybe the Commodore will visit you.’

Tenten laughed loudly as if the thought seemed ridiculous.

‘Commodore “Pretty-Boy” Hyūga? He’s not the kind who can compromise his morals.’ A pink blush rose to Tenten’s cheeks that had nothing to do with the drink. ‘Oh, how scandalous it would be. One of the most senior-ranking naval officers of the Royal Konoha Navy and a disgraced navy lieutenant turned pirate? It’s a tale to end in misery.’

‘You guys have history.’

‘It was a long time ago,’ replied Tenten wistfully. ‘We’re different people on different paths now.’

Sakura frowned at Tenten’s words. She took a swig of rum, the amber liquid warming her stomach. Different people, different paths. Well, wasn’t that the truth? She tilted the bottle, sloshing the rum around into a miniature whirlpool caught inside glass. Who was she compared to the eighteen year-old girl who’d first set sail with her father on their family’s merchant ship? She hadn’t been that Sakura Haruno in years, wouldn’t even recognise that person if she looked for her in the mirror.

‘So are you going to tell me?’

‘What?’

‘The ring you wear around your neck.’ Tenten crossed her arms over her chest, eyebrows raised in question. ‘It’s been over ten year since I broke you out of jail for trying to steal a galleon from under the nose of the Konoha Navy. In that time, every time we set sail for new lands or riches, it always leads back to that ring.’

Sakura forced her hand to relax, flattening her palm against her knee as it itched to go to the ring beneath her clothes. It wasn’t like she had hid her actions very well. Tenten had eyes as observant as a hawk. It would have been an insult to Tenten if Sakura thought she had never noticed.

‘What do you know of the Monster of the Hidden Mist.’ Sakura brought the bottle to her lips only to find it empty. Sighing heavily, she threw the bottle overboard.

‘Only what I’ve heard from the stories.’ Tenten shrugged, reached into the crate next to her and pulled out two full bottles of rum. She passed one to Sakura. ‘The smell of blood on the seas is enough to draw him out like a shark.’

A shark. Sakura scoffed. Wasn’t that accurate? Yet, it still completely missed the mark. She drank from the bottle, gulping large mouthfuls, eyes smarting from the harsh burn of alcohol as it went down her throat. This was a conversation she didn’t want to be entirely sober for.

Sakura tugged the necklace from beneath her shirt and rested the ring on the palm of her hand. The yellow jewel glinted beneath the light of the stars. It had kept her company for years and every day, it reminded her of the things she had lost. Even to this day, she was still adrift and lost to the feelings she felt for _him_. With a deep breath, she forced herself to say his name for the first time in twelve years. ‘The monster is called Kisame Hoshigaki.’

‘Kisame Hoshigaki, one of the Seven Admirals of the Mist?’

She brought her rum to her lips and drank. The ring in her hand grew hot when she spoke his name. She closed her hand around it unconsciously.

‘The same one who defected from Kiri and joined the Akatsuki for a chance at immortality?’ Sakura gave another nod, drank another gulp of rum. Tenten’s voice grew quiet as she added, ‘the same one who murdered his entire crew in their sleep?’

‘The one and only.’

‘Well, shit,’ said Tenten finally, taking a hefty drink. She shuddered. ‘The poor bastards hadn’t known what was coming. No one goes to sleep expecting to have their throats slit, least of all by the captain.’

‘They didn’t all die.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘I meant what I said, they didn’t all die,’ repeated Sakura, looking up at Tenten. Her vision span. The rum was finally working its way around her body, tilting the world and rocking her stomach. She felt sick, but she pushed the feeling away, even as her last memory of Kisame rose to mind like the angry swell of the sea. ‘Of the entire crew, he didn’t kill his first mate.’

‘How do you know that?’

Sakura shrugged, swaying slightly with the movement. ‘Because I was his first mate.’

Tenten stared wide-eyed and opened-mouthed at Sakura. The bottle of rum in Tenten’s hand paused on route to her mouth. ‘When the Witch said “your Admiral”, she meant him?’

Sakura nodded silently.

‘Shit, Sakura…’

‘Yeah…’

‘Do you know why he let you live?’

It was a question she asked herself all the time. That night she had woken up with deep-seated apprehension in her bones. She had left her quarters with a coat thrown over her nightgown, uncaring of her appearance from years of being in the company of men, and had hurried from the room. The iron tang of freshly spilled blood had hit her before she had descended to the crews’ quarters

The wooden deck had been slick with blood, still warm beneath the soles of her feet. What she had seen, she could never erase from her memory. The quartermaster’s wide frightened eyes. The slide of a sharp knife as it had moved across his neck. The spray of blood that had painted the air. The thump of his lifeless body as it hit the deck.

Nothing could make her forget how Kisame had stared at her through the gloom. Eyes cold. Face expressionless. It plagued her memories, kept her up at night, and fuelled her resolve for revenge. She had expected to die that night. Except she had woken on a desert island, a throbbing headache from a lump on the back of her head, but otherwise uninjured and still very much alive. He had left her a pistol with a single shot, fresh water and food to last a week. He had left her his ring.

‘I have no idea why I didn’t die,’ replied Sakura finally. She took a long swig of rum, draining the bottle to almost half-empty. She had once toyed with the idea that he felt more for her than he had let on. But she had dashed that in an instance. Sakura was sure their couplings had been one-sided and she hated herself for yearning for more than they could have. ‘Perhaps he needed someone alive to tell the tale. Why else would he leave the ring?’

Tenten released a long breath, stunned and seemingly broken by Sakura’s story. ‘No wonder you want to kill him.’

Sakura fought against the rising lump in her throat. The pain of his betrayal hadn’t lessened. Twelve years had passed and it still fucking hurt. He had saved her when he could have left her to drown in Ryūjin’s clutches. They had sailed the seas together, had each others’ backs through thick and thin. There was not enough rum in the world that could erase the memory of his soft touch and how his hands used to run gently over her skin.

In the end, she had meant nothing to him.

***

The first sign that something was wrong happened not two days after Sakura had seen Ino. Sakura looked up to the crow’s nest at Sai’s yell. He pointed to the east.

‘A ship approaches!’

She rushed to the bow of the ship. After the mess with the Commodore, they were not going to be caught unaware by the Royal Konoha Navy again.

Her brass telescope was already pressed to her right eye before she had jumped onto the railings. A sharp gasp left her at the sight of the ship in the distance. The sails were tattered and patched, but still billowed with the sea wind. On the front of the ship was the familiar figurehead of a mermaid, except its bottom half was of a shark’s and not a fish. Its lips were pulled back in a vicious snarl to reveal sharply carved teeth. The sides of the ship were dotted with barnacles. But it was the black flag of a white shark whipping back and forth in the wind that made Sakura’s blood run cold. They were on the edge of Kiri’s waters and hadn’t even made it into the fog yet.

Something was definitely wrong.

‘All hands on deck!’ Sakura jerked away and yelled at the top of her lungs. ‘Everyone to your stations! If you bloody want to live to see land, you better ready the damn guns!’

Pounding footsteps and yells filled the ship as the crew raced to prepare the ship. She pushed past the crew as she stalked across deck, stomped up the stairs and to the ship’s wheel.

‘What are we facing, Captain,’ asked Tenten, eyes narrowed and focused on the horizon.

‘It’s him.’

Tenten’s head snapped to her. ‘What?!’

‘Look alive Tenten.’ Sakura pressed her lips together into a grimace. ‘We’re going to get up and personal with the _Samehada_ and her captain.’

It didn’t take long for the _Samehada_ to reach them. In all the fantasies Sakura had of this moment, she didn’t expect it to be so anticlimactic. There was no boom of the guns as their ships faced each other. The crew didn’t swing from the masts to board the ship. It was all very underwhelming. Well, it was still early and Sakura was going to change that.

‘They’re signalling to board the ship,’ said Tenten.

‘Let them board, but stay sharp.’ Sakura’s hand tightened around the hilt of her cutlass. ‘I can’t kill him yet, but that doesn’t mean I can’t hurt him.’

A plank was placed between both ships and Sakura waited impatiently as members of the _Samehada’s_ crew crossed the makeshift bridge to her ship. They were nothing like the crew she used to know. Their faces were scarred, their clothes ragged and weathered from a lifetime at sea. Each man and woman who boarded looked like they had their last breath beaten from them. It was the expressions of a cursed crew.

She didn’t care about any of them. The last one to board Sakura’s ship was the one person she had spent twelve years of her life chasing across the seas. She only cared about the captain.

Kisame Hoshigaki looked no different since the last time Sakura had seen him. She didn’t expect him to. Even in his immortality, he dressed simply but smartly. A shirt tucked into loose breeches and boots, leather baldric with two pistols hung diagonally from his right shoulder to his left hip, and a leather belt at his hips for his sword from his time as an Admiral. No hat or coat or bandana. He had always been a simple man. When he was still a man that was.

‘Sakura.’

The deep rumbling of Kisame’s voice almost had Sakura’s knee buckling. It had been so long since she had heard her name spoken by him. The years had passed without pause like the flow of the tide against a beach, and still his voice affected her. She stood her ground and forced herself to look up at him.

‘A personal visit by one of the most infamous pirates of the sea,’ started Sakura, effusing as much nonchalance as she could muster, despite the shaking inside her. She walked around him, feeling the crew of both ships tense as she circled before stopping in front of him again. ‘If you had shown me the courtesy of an earlier visit, you would have saved me the time and trouble of trying to find you.’

‘Why make it easy for you? I had so much fun over the years watching you trying to find your way through the fog.’

‘So what’s changed?’ she asked. ‘To what do I owe the pleasure of this reunion?’

Apparently, that was the right question to ask. Kisame pressed his lips into a thin line. It was as if he had eaten something sour. ‘Something has called me. It came in the night like a whisper beneath the stars.’

That took Sakura by surprise. In all the accounts she had heard, the ones that had turned from stories to myth, none had ever told of the Monster of the Hidden Mist being summoned.

‘So imagine my surprise when it led me straight to you,’ he crossed his arm over his chest and looked around at the ship, ‘and to this fine ship of yours.’

‘If you have been called, then you must know about the Ten-Tails,’ said Sakura, ignoring what he had said.

Kisame’s lips curled in disgust and he growled beneath his breath. He didn’t say yes or no, but his reaction was enough for Sakura.

‘You are going to help me find a way to defeat it before the next full moon.’

He closed the few feet between them with one long stride. ‘That captain’s hat on your head is making you forget who you’re talking to.’

‘I know exactly who I am talking to.’ Her hand went to the hilt of her cutlass and immediately, she heard the shuffle of the crew behind and in front of her. ‘I will force you if I have to.’

Kisame leaned in, head tilting down as he placed a single finger beneath Sakura’s chin. The breath in her lungs froze, her gaze fixed firmly on his chest. He slowly lifted her head up and her gazed trailed from his chest to his neck, past the day-old stubble on his jaw and finally, to settle on his eyes.

‘Hand the _Shannaro_ to me and I may just consider your request to help you,’ said Kisame with a sly smirk. ‘Do we have an accord?’

The glint in Sakura’s eye steeled into defiance and a short burst of laughter escaped her. Her laugh grew louder and louder as the smirk on Kisame’s face faded. When she finally got control of herself, she smiled and bridged the gap until there was a whisper of space between them. Kisame’s gaze went to her lips.

‘You can have the _Shannaro_ ,’ started Sakura in a quiet voice. She leaned back slightly and watched as Kisame’s head followed. Her lips were tantalisingly close to Kisame’s, but not quite touching. ‘Over my dead body.’

The muscles in Kisame’s jaw flexed, a mutinous expression falling across his face. He grinned, revealing sharp teeth. ‘Then we better get started.’

Sakura jumped back, hand unsheathing her cutlass in one fluid motion. The sharp ring of metal being pulled from scabbards sang into the air from behind her.

Kisame took his sword in hand and asked in a bored voice, ‘are you ready to die, Sakura?’

She charged forward with a yell and they met in a clash of steel. Around them, their crew crashed into battle, swords swinging and pistols firing as havoc reigned. For every strike of Kisame’s sword, Sakura countered with quick strikes of her own. She pushed forward, feet skipping across the deck, only to be pushed back by Kisame. It felt less like a fight and more like a game of give and take. They exchanged strikes that made no real damage at all.

‘Your skills have got sloppy.’ Kisame countered Sakura’s attack with a twist of his wrist. ‘I’m surprised you haven’t died yet.’

‘I’m not surprised you’re still alive.’ Sakura swerved out of the way of his next swing. She pounced forward, parrying his sword and knocking it out of his hand. ‘Have you killed any more unsuspecting crew in their sleep?’

Kisame leapt backwards as the tip of Sakura’s cutlass sliced a line in his shirt. Instead of the anger she was expecting, Kisame threw his head back and laughed. He grinned with all his teeth, eyes gleaming with wild excitement. ‘Be truthful, you missed this, right?’

She realised that a traitorous smile had appeared on her lips. Anger flared hot inside her at the truth of his words. The tang of blood filled her mouth as she bit down hard on her bottom lip, breaking sensitive skin.

It was as if no time had passed at all, that it hadn’t been _years_ since she had last seen him. He hadn’t changed a bit. His dark, blue hair was a little longer, windswept from the sea breezes, but still the same. He still wore the same damn smirk. He still used the same infuriating playfulness when he spoke to her, oscillating from teasing to seriousness effortlessly.

With renewed energy, she lunged at Kisame with the palm of her hand at the pommel of her cutlass. She threw all her strength into each swing, teeth bared as the anger that had simmered since the day Kisame had slaughtered their crew and abandoned her on an island, burned bright and uncontrollable. It threatened to consume her.

‘Why did you do it?’ cried Sakura with every frenzied swipe of her cutlass.

He side-stepped and dodged easily, and it only infuriated Sakura more that none of her hits were landing. Her swordsmanship lost all form, every one of her attacks driven by fury and the adrenaline in coursing in her veins.

She brought her sword down in a swinging arch only for Kisame to catch her sword arm in a tight hold. His fingers dug into her wrist, squeezing unforgivingly until she gasped and lost her grip on the hilt. Her cutlass dropped to the ship deck with a ringing clang.

‘Why didn’t you kill me too?!’ Sakura seethed between gritted teeth. Her body sagged under the weight of the years lost searching the seas for her revenge. Her chest heaved with the effort to breathe, lungs burning for air as if there wasn’t enough of it. ‘Was this what you wanted? For me to live through the pain and resent being alive?’

The smirk on Kisame’s face fell and he stared back, his eyes blank and devoid of his earlier teasing. They were so close. Toe to toe. Chest to chest. They were caught in a twisted embrace that wasn’t quite that of two enemies, not with the way it bore the semblance of two people who were once intimately familiar with the other. His grip on her wrist had loosened. His other hand wrapped around her waist to hold her up, as he looked at her.

It was as if Sakura had been transported through time from just the look on Kisame’s face. She was no longer the captain of the _Shannaro_. She wasn’t even one of the most wanted pirate captains on the seas. In that moment, she was just Sakura. The one who had shed her old life and sailed the seas with Kisame, discovering treasure and living a life of adventure that a life of legitimacy could never give her.

She had spent twelve years constructing her speech for when she found herself face-to-face with Kisame again. Not a single word from that speech was said. She did none of the things she had said she would.

‘Why?’ asked Sakura with desperation. The moment her fingertips touched Kisame’s jaw the spell broke, and they were back to who they were and not who they had been.

Sakura jerked backwards and pulled her pistol from its holster. A bullet to his head wasn’t going to kill him. The contents of the bottle would kill him. She couldn’t use it. At least not yet.

‘Don’t take it so personally.’ Kisame sheathed his sword and his crew stopped fighting. ‘You were a means to an end.’

Cold fury replaced her earlier moment of vulnerability. So she did mean nothing to him after all. She pushed down the feeling and shrugged back on the armour she had got so used to wearing over the years. Her forefinger tensed around the trigger, but stopped shy of pulling it down completely. As much as she didn’t want to, she had to put aside her wants. This was something bigger than her.

‘You feel it, don’t you?’ Sakura said quietly so that only Kisame heard her. The words ground out like stone. ‘Something’s not right with the sea? In the roll of the waves and the line of the horizon.’

Kisame growled, his sharp teeth bared. ‘Yes.’

‘Whether you like it or not, we are to sail to the other side.’ The bottle with the drop of silvery fluid felt as heavy as an anvil on the inside pocket of her coat, but all she could focus on was Ino’s warning. ‘Apparently, only you know the way.’

‘That damn witch.’ Kisame’s mouth twisted into a scowl. He spat out viciously, ‘why should I care what becomes of this world? I couldn’t give a shit if evil consumed it. Let that thing destroy the world.’

Sakura gritted her teeth, but she couldn’t find fault in what Kisame had said. She forcibly unclenched her hands from the tight fists they were in. Why should he care?

‘You’re right, even if we did make it to the end, we might not make it back,’ against her better judgement, she slowly lowered the pistol, so it faced down, ‘I could be weighed by Ryūjin and be found wanting. Whatever that means.’

Kisame grunted and turned away, but not before Sakura saw the dark look on his face. ‘Why are you so sure that this is true?’

‘You dare offend the spirits or whatever magic that lives in the Yamanaka line?’ An involuntary shiver shook Sakura. Whatever possessed Ino was not benign, and always had a hint of malice. Its malevolence was held in check only by Ino herself.

Kisame looked over his shoulder, a grim frown on his forehead. Even Kisame’s immortality was granted to him and as easily taken from him by powers not of this world. ‘Maybe today is the day I choose to offend it.’

A buzzing droned in her ears and Ino’s words echoed inside her head. Panic and the feeling of being in danger filled Sakura as she watched Kisame walking away. She blurted, ‘remember your promise!’

She had no idea what those three words meant to Kisame to cause him to freeze in his steps. In a movement that wasn’t entirely human, he whirled around and Sakura found a knife at her neck before she had even seen him move across the deck.

‘I don’t think you want to do that.’ Sakura stilled at the sharp sting of the blade against the soft skin of her neck. She kept her gaze fixed on Kisame. There was something in his dark eyes that she couldn’t identify. Whatever it was, she wasn’t privy to it and she was no longer familiar enough with him to guess.

They were stuck in stalemate, caught between one action to the next. Her life was in Kisame’s hands, and not even the press of her pistol’s muzzle at his chest was going to stop him from killing her.

‘We leave now,’ muttered Kisame finally. ‘Just you. No one else.’

The knife dropped from Sakura’s neck and she gasped, hand going to her neck. Kisame stalked away and crossed the plank. His crew followed him in a slow march back to the _Samehada_. She brought her hand away to see a thin red line of blood on her palm.

Tenten rushed to her side, cutlasses in both hands. ‘Orders, Captain?’

Sakura shook her head. ‘I’m going with him. You’re staying here.’

‘Can you trust him?’ Worry was etched into Tenten’s features.

‘I don’t have much choice,’ said Sakura truthfully, which didn’t inspire confidence in herself or her quartermaster. ‘Only Kisame and his ship can cross the divide between this world and the next.’

Tenten nodded and, ever practical, asked, ‘what can I do?’

‘Keep the _Shannaro_ safe for me.’ Sakura clasped Tenten’s hand and gave her the key to the captain’s cabin. ‘See if you can gather the brethren court by the full moon. We’ll need every single pirate and ship to fight that creature. Whether I return or not.’

‘Leave it with me.’ Tenten tugged her into a tight hug. ‘Be careful, Sakura. We’ll be here waiting.’

***

They sailed south to where the sea went from warm to frigid cold. It was a place where even the sun was not able to heat the waters. The few hours of sunlight were only a brief reprieve to the almost perpetual darkness. The empty horizon slowly filled with snow capped mountains and hulking white icebergs, floating by like silent sentinels and hiding danger within the depths of the sea. It was nothing Sakura had ever seen before and much further south than she had ever sailed.

Sakura tucked her chilled hands into the inside of her coat. Her body shook uncontrollably and her teeth chattered together. She stood on the quarterdeck and watched the _Samehada_ slide between the gaps of the icebergs. Something heavy was dropped onto her shoulders and Sakura paused, eyes focused on the red pattern of the quilt draped over her. She looked up to see Kisame take control of the ship’s wheel from one of his crew. It was as if nothing had happened. His spiky hair was encrusted with ice. A warmth that had nothing to do with the thick quilt filled her. She stamped down the feeling and turned away, pulling the quilt tighter around her shaking body.

‘What was the promise you made?’ asked Sakura suddenly. She cursed that her voice shook. From the cold that was. When Kisame didn’t reply, she went over to the helm and stared up at him with a sharp gaze.

‘You’re still just as annoying as you were years ago,’ was Kisame’s reply.

She turned away with a huff and focused on the unfamiliar view of mountains and snow that shone white and blue in the light. They were running out of time. It had taken a whole day of non-stop sailing to reach here and cursed as they were, the crew was exhausted and looked even more ragged than when she first boarded. ‘We’re not going to make it.’

Kisame scoffed. ‘You ask for my help and then you insult me.’

‘Can you blame me?’ Sakura shot back. Her breaths were visible wisps in front of her.

‘That has always been your weakness,’ said Kisame quietly as he steered the ship into a narrow gap in the ice shelf. ‘You have always been a slave to your emotions.’

The biting retort on Sakura’s tongue was forgotten as a yawning cavern came into view. It was black and pitless, and she quaked as ominous foreboding filled her. This place was old, ancient even, and against her better judgement, she was going straight into it. The sides of the cavern were jagged, the snow no longer a pure white or blue, but a darker, almost black in colour.

Sakura held her breath as the ice and snow creaked above them. One misspoken word or a raised voice, and she was sure it would send the cavern down upon their heads. The rest of the ship had fallen eerily silent, not even the ship’s movement in the water seemed to make a sound. She stepped closer to Kisame and wrapped herself tighter in the quilt.

This was a passage not meant for mortals, and Sakura was the most mortal of them all. The darkness swallowed them into its depths and it was like a strip of cloth had been placed across her eyes. Her breath came out in bursts, the icy air sharp and painful in her chest, and no matter how she tried, it was like she wasn’t able to draw enough air into lungs. A hand gripped her shoulder firmly and she grasped at it, fingers sliding beneath the callused palm. She found comfort in the familiar dips and lines of Kisame’s hand. She didn’t know how long they sailed in the dark. It could have been hours. It could have been days. She had no idea. Through it all, the only thing that kept her from losing her senses was Kisame’s hand in hers.

It started as the tiniest dot of white against a completely black canvas in the distance. The light grew larger as the _Samehada_ progressed through the passage, until it got so bright that Sakura had to close her eyes and turn away. It made no difference. From behind her closed eyelids, it was just as blindingly bright. Then it stopped. It was as if she had passed beneath a waterfall and the frigid cold drained from her body, and was replaced by a warmth that made her sweat beneath the thick quilt.

Sakura opened her eyes and moved away from Kisame, ignoring the moment they had shared like it had not happened. The so-called “other side” was oddly normal. The _Samehada_ sliced through the waters with unerring speed. The sea breeze was as familiar as the sunlight against her face. The white icebergs, the dark sea, and the falling snow had disappeared the moment they had sailed out of the ice cavern. The unforgiving chill in the air had reversed into a temperate climate. It was as if they had returned to the seas by the Land of Fire.

Except they hadn’t, and it was far from normal. They sailed and sailed and sailed, and yet the horizon only seemed to get further and further away. The sky remained a perpetual twilight.

Sakura stared desperately at the straight line of the horizon. Anxiety tugged at her like the tightening line of an anchor. They were nearly out of time.

‘Are you sure this is the way?’

Kisame glared at her. ‘Yes.’

It was barely noticeable, but Sakura felt it and so did Kisame. The ship was slowing and was no longer moving through the waters with ease. The wind died down, then disappeared altogether. The sails dropped and didn’t even flutter in the air. The ship was dead in the water. It was as if a glass dome had been placed over Sakura’s head. Everything was completely still, not even the lapping of the water against the sides of the ship could be heard. It was as if they had frozen, caught in a moment like a scene in an oil painting.

‘Kisame?’

He smirked. ‘We’ve arrived.’

‘This is it?’ They were in the middle of the ocean with nothing else to show that they had arrived at Ryūjin’s lair. It was just an expanse of water. ‘I thought the dragon god of the sea lived in the darkest depths, in a palace made of red and white coral?’

‘Children’s stories told to amuse and excite,’ said Kisame as he walked down the wooden stairs and onto the main deck. ‘This is it.’

‘How do I know you’re not lying.’

‘You don’t,’ replied Kisame with a sneer.

Sakura glared at his back as she followed him, irritation and suspicion firmly entrenched in her expression. He was right though. She could not be sure he wasn't lying, but she would be deluding herself if she thought they were still in their world.

‘How do you know where to sail? I’m sure there’s no compass in the world that could bring you straight to Ryūjin’s lair.’

‘Immortality didn’t come without a price.’ Kisame stalked over to the gap in the railings. ‘It’s a trade of sorts between Ryūjin himself.’

‘What is the price?’

Kisame stared at Sakura, gaze weighted with something she couldn’t understand. ‘A promise and giving up the thing you hold most dear.’

 _A promise._ Was that what Ino was referring to when she had Sakura remind him? It would make sense. Her hand went to her necklace. The ring was Kisame’s most prized possession. It wouldn’t be far off to guess that the ring was what he had to give up.

Sakura watched with large eyes as Kisame grabbed a line of rope and dropped over the side of the ship. But instead splashing into the water and sinking, she heard a solid thud and a grunt. She rushed over to the railings to find Kisame standing on the surface of the water.

It turned out that the water’s surface was solid. Her feet touched the surface gingerly after she had climbed down the ladder. It was like walking on glass that was covered by an inch of water, and so clear that it reflected the vibrant colours of the sky above. It was the oddest sensation for Sakura. It felt like walking on the sky.

She stood next to Kisame who was shielding his eyes with his hand. ‘Where do we go from here?’

‘Forward.’

They walked towards the horizon, the ripples on the water’s surface growing larger with each step they took. Unlike when the _Samehada_ sailed, the horizon didn’t move as they got closer. Rather it looked as if the horizon was moving towards them, and with it came a rumbling that undulated the surface beneath their feet.

The water bounced, droplets dancing upwards, floating in the air for a second before dropping back down. Ridges like tiny hills and small mountains rose fluidly and collapsed into the water. Sakura stopped, her hand catching Kisame’s wrist as the ground beneath her shook with increasing intensity. Kisame caught her around the waist before she fell and righted her back onto her feet. If she had fallen, would she have fallen through this world?

A column of water rushed upwards in a swirling torrent, coloured red, purple and pink from the sunset reflected upon its surface. It looked like a pillar of flames and Sakura stepped backward in fear and reverence. A dragon head emerged from the water. Its serpentine body followed, razor sharp claws on its front and hind legs glinted in warning, and as dangerous-looking as the pointed teeth in its snarling and bared jaws.

This was the dragon god of the sea. Ryūjin. Its scales shimmered in the dying sunlight, majestic and magical as it reared backwards, suspended in the air by a mystic power. The dragon’s red eyes locked Sakura in place, freezing her joints and limbs even as her muscles fought to run.

_Who are you?_

It was completely different to Ino’s magic where she was a spectator, caught in the radius of magic as it was being used. She had never been subject to magic. Her knees trembled under the weight of a power so ancient that it flowed over her like a terrifying tide. It felt like being pulled into the endless depths of the sea and she was helpless, unable to fight it as it took her under.

‘Sakura Haruno…’

 _No, who_ are _you?_

She clasped her hands over her ears. The roar of the repeated question reverberated through her bones. It was all inside her head. She shook in fear. Who was she? She had answered her name, so how could it be wrong?

Sakua turned to Kisame who only shrugged. ‘I can’t help you here.’

The dragon god’s body twisted impatiently, rushing and shimmering in the twilight, and Sakura realised that the scales weren’t opaque. Ryūjin was made of water itself and beneath its scales, the water flowed endlessly in a strong and brutal current.

She stared up at the god as she thought over its question. Lady Sakura Haruno was a relic of the past, an identity that had never felt true, weak-minded and reliant on the power of others. She was not the woman who had almost died at sea fourteen years ago, saved by the man standing next to her. She was not the same person who had discarded the trappings of her previous station. She had become a pirate. She was once the first mate to Kisame Hoshigaki. Who was she if she wasn’t the woman fuelled by rage, vengeance and a lust for revenge against the man who had betrayed her?

She was Captain Sakura Haruno and even that did not feel right.

‘I’m someone who has lost their way,’ answered Sakura finally, realising the truth in her confession. She looked at Kisame and the feeling of loss welled so suddenly that she felt she would collapse from the grief of it. ‘I have a goal and it’s driven me through the last twelve years of my life, but now that it’s within my reach, I’m not sure if I can take it. I feel… conflicted.’

A satisfied growl came from the dragon god. Its eyes flashed and pain pounded suddenly in Sakura’s head. Her vision grew hazy and she dropped to her knees, hands holding her head as she pitched forward into the water. She fell through the divide, body sinking through the surface so fluidly that the transition from above to below was seamless. She sank into the dark water, arms floating out outwards, muscles immobilised. The pain stopped. The world warped. Colours streamed past her. Visions. Dreams. Hallucinations. She wasn’t sure what they were, but images after images flowed past, flowed through and flowed into her.

She saw herself standing on the deck of a ship. The angle was weird. It was as if she was seeing herself from high above in the sky. Then it would change and she came into view from the side, then from beneath. It was an amalgamation of viewpoints that made her head spin. She held a musket, eyes squinted down the barrel, aimed at something she could not see. Her fingers squeezed the trigger. A single shot exploded from the muzzle.

Sakura’s eyelids flew open and she gasped at the flare of pain in abdomen. She fumbled at her body, but there was no wound. Above her was Kisame looking down at her. There was concern in the lines of his frown, his face framed by the waning light and colours of twilight. She was lying on the ground, clothes wet from the water, and cradled in Kisame’s arms. Her head lolled to the side and she pressed her face into his chest, finding comfort in the smell of sea salt, old leather and a hint of sandalwood. He still liked sandalwood.

‘Sakura?’

His hand smoothed her hair in a tender gesture that wrung at Sakura’s heart. The pain faded away becoming nothing more than an echo. She didn’t want to get up, but consciousness reasserted itself and along came the painful awareness of reality. She struggled up and stood on wobbly legs. There was truth in what she saw. It could have been a vision of the future or simply wishful thinking. She knew for certain that it would be the way to kill the creature.

Ryūjin’s long body slithered through the air and it lowered its head in front of Sakura. Face to face. Eye to eye. They were so close that she saw the water inside its body coursing like a raging river.

_What will you give up in return for the future?_

A trade of sorts. Those were the words Kisame had used. Sakura swallowed down the misgiving that lodged itself in her throat. The tiny bottle tucked inside her coat. It was the physical manifestation of her revenge. The thing she had been chasing all this time.

She reached inside her coat—

 _You may keep it, but you must promise that_ you _will not use it._

Sakura nodded and let her hand drop back to her side listlessly, bereft and even more lost than when she had first arrived. Her revenge in exchange for saving the world.

Ryūjin nodded, its snout nudged at her arm until she held her hand out. It spat out two black pearls into her palm. The pearls were the size of a bullet. Or rather, they were bullets that resembled pearls.

‘Why two?’

The voice boomed inside her thoughts. _In case you miss._

Sakura dropped the two pearls into a leather pouch she found in a pocket. She tightened and tied the strings, and looped the pouch over her head. There was no way she would miss. She didn’t believe the reason the dragon god gave her.

Fear thrummed down her body as she realised what she had thought. Offending a god was not the way to endear a deity to her. Instead of being smote for her insolence, a loud rumbling laughter emanated from the dragon god. Its jaw dropped open into something that resembled a smile. All she saw were its sharp fangs and none of the humour.

_There’s more to you than meets the eye. We will meet again, Sakura Haruno._

The dragon god faded before her eyes.

***

The journey back to their world was less harrowing, but no less pressuring and Sakura found herself even more restless on the return. She gripped the leather pouch with her hand. There was no way to know if they had made it or if they were too late.

Kisame’s solid presence next to her helped. Silently supporting her with one hand on her shoulder, the other on the ship’s wheel.

She was too tired to shrug him off. Weariness weighed heavy on her. It was deep in her soul and there was still much to do. So she allowed herself this one moment of weakness. She leaned into Kisame’s side. When he lifted his arm to wrap around her shoulder, she sank into the familiar comfort of his embrace and closed her eyes. How easy it was to fall back into old habits.

Almost too easy.

The ice passage was getting lighter. The darkness was less thick and encompassing, the air easier to breathe in. Sakura knew once the ship sailed out they would lose this reminder of who they used to be to each other. They would go back to being on other sides. She would be Captain Sakura Haruno. He would be Kisame, the Monster of the Hidden Mist.

Whatever brief moment they shared in the passage between worlds would remain in the past.

Kisame looked down at Sakura, and she leaned up. An understanding passed between them. A concession to their weakness. A sob threatened to escape her at the press of Kisame’s lips against hers.

It was softer than she remembered. Their kisses were fuelled by passion, never gentle or tender, exchanged in the middle of fights, in between clashes of steel and with the booming blast of cannons in the background. Kisame’s hand slipped into her hair, cupped the back of her head as she gripped his shirt and pulled him down.

It never used to feel like yearning.

The light of the cavern was getting brighter, and Sakura clenched her eyes closed, unwilling to let go. She kissed him harder. Then with one heaving shove, she pushed him away and turned to the cavern exit, eyes smarting from the intensity of the light and the burn of her tears.

***

The _Samehada_ rose up from the sea in a rush of water, appearing in the middle of the ocean. The sea water ran off the sides of the ship, but everything on board was dry.

Sakura blinked as the harsh light hurt her eyes. She stared in awe at their location. She had expected the frozen South, not the seas near the Land of Fire.

‘Tenten did it!’ Sakura launched herself to the side of the ship.

Ships lined the horizon in front and behind the _Samehada_. The colours of the brethren court flew proudly in the wind. She squinted, thinking her eyes were playing tricks with her, but her eyesight was as good as it always was. The Royal Konoha Navy surrounded the _Shannaro_. She turned her head from left to right, realising that it wasn’t just pirate flags, but the flags of every country’s Navy was present and hoisted. Pirate and Naval flags flew together, a temporary truce, joined together in arms against a common evil.

The Ten-Tails dominated the sea between the ships. Its huge bulk was even larger than when she last saw it. Seeing the _Samehada_ , the Ten-Tails rose in a towering mass and faced the ship, its tails whipping and lashing against the water. Its circular, patterned eye narrowed into a slit. Its mouth opened. A loud screeching cry echoed into the air.

‘To your stations!’ yelled Sakura.

The crew flew into action, despite Sakura not being their captain. Under Kisame's hands, the _Samehada_ turned to the Ten-Tails and sailed full speed towards it.

Behind the Ten-Tails, the _Shannaro_ raised its canvas and sailed forward. The ships around her moved to offer support. The _Samehada_ led the battle against the creature with the _Shannaro_ piloted by Tenten. The seconds that passed were the most tense Sakura ever experienced, as the gap between them and the creature got smaller.

‘Ready the guns!’

Kisame jerked the wheel to port, lining the ship so the cannons faced the Ten-Tails. The _Shannaro_ did the same on the other side. Another screech filled the air, jarring Sakura’s teeth and she stared in shock at the sheer size of the creature before her. One swipe of a tail and it would cleave the ship in half.

Sudden silence fell across the sea like a thick blanket. Not even the lapping of the waters on the hull could be heard. Sakura looked at Kisame. A vicious grin stretched his lips. It was the same one he used to give her before a raid.

She grinned in return and faced the crew. ‘Fire!’

The battle started with the booms of multiple cannons. The acrid smell of gunpowder stung Sakura’s nose as both ships fired at the Ten-Tails unrelentingly. A deep, guttural roar shook the ship and sent Sakura stumbling. A crack sounded overhead. The mizzenmast snapped easily from a flick of a tail. She threw herself out of the way of the falling mast. The mast landed with a crunch, crushing the quarterdeck and splintering the railings.

‘Kisame!’ She turned to the helm, panic-rising, only to subside when Kisame yelled at her to focus.

‘Find a musket!’ shouted Kisame. The muscles in his arms tensed as he spun the wheel, steering the ship in circles around the Ten-Tails. ‘Kill the damn thing!’

She jumped down to the main deck. Bits of wood flew like shrapnel around Sakura as she weaved between men shouting and firing the cannons. A man screamed, lifted into the air by the creature’s tail, and thrown into the sea with nothing more than a twitch.

A musket dropped in front of her. The stock cracked on impact, a deep line running across the wood. She grabbed the musket by the barrel with one hand and with her other, she ripped the leather pouch from around her neck. With shaking fingers, she fumbled with the strings and almost dropped the bullet, but she managed to load it into the musket.

Sakura raised the musket, the butt rested firmly against her shoulder, and aimed straight for the Ten-Tails’ single eye. She pulled the trigger. Before the bullet found its mark, she reloaded the second bullet in.

_In case you miss._

She didn’t miss.

The bullet struck true. The Ten-Tails let out a deafening howl before it froze. Its mouth hung open, tails suspended in the air, and claws outstretched in a grasp. The beige colour of the creature’s skin turned grey and cracked with a thousand tiny fissures. The Ten-Tails fell backwards in the sea. Its massive body slammed into the water, sending tidal waves that tilted the _Samehada_ at a dangerous angle.

Sakura held onto the sail rope, but as soon as the ship righted herself, everything descended into chaos. The brethren court turned from the battle and sailed at full speed to escape the small armada of Navy ships waiting to take them down.

In the midst of the confusion, one of the Konoha ships had sailed toward them and boarded the _Samehada,_ led by Commodore Hyūga of all people. The crew of the _Shannaro_ had somehow made it aboard too. There were too many people for the ship to handle, but that didn’t stop swords being raised and jeering yells of sailors ready to fight. The crew of all three ships met in a clash of swords and bayonets.

Sakura dropped the musket and unsheathed her cutlass. She whipped around to face a uniformed naval officer wearing the colours of the Konoha Navy. A sword slashed him down before she could even strike.

Kisame appeared by her side and winked at her. ‘Just like old times?’

‘After this, you’re mine.’ Sakura lunged forward and drove her sword straight into the gut of an officer who had approached Kisame from behind.

A savage grin slid on Kisame’s face . His eyes were wild with excitement. ‘Don’t die first and maybe, you’ll get your chance.’

It really was like old times. They cut down each and every person that crossed their paths. Their swords sliced through the air as they moved around each other in a dance that only she and Kisame knew the steps to. The bodies they cut dropped to the deck like flies.

A yell from behind Sakura had her spinning around to face the quarterdeck, sword raised to block a strike that came down hard, jarring the bones in her arm. Her eyes widened at the sight of the Commodore with a musket in his hands. The stock was cracked. It was the same musket she had used to kill the Ten-Tails.

‘Commodore!’ yelled Sakura, but her voice was lost to the din of the skirmish around her.

Hyūga raised the musket, eye squinting down the barrel, and aimed straight for Kisame’s back.

Sakura gave a loud grunt and kicked the officer in the chest. She raced to Kisame, pushing past whoever got in her way and swiping at random with her cutlass. He was only a few feet away. Just a little more and she would reach him. The shot rang into the air as Sakura dived in front of Kisame.

A searing pain burned in her abdomen like none she had ever felt before. The pain laced through her like licking flames and stole the breath in her lungs. Her mouth fell open in a desperate attempt for more air. Her back thudded against the deck. The sky above her was blocked by Kisame coming into her line of sight. She gasped and tried to force the choking sounds in her throat into comprehensible words.

‘Why did you do that?’ There was rage behind Kisame’s words, but she couldn’t concentrate on it, when all she saw was the panic in his dark eyes.

Sakura reached up with a shaking hand and pressed her hand to Kisame’s cheek. His skin was cool against the burning skin on her palm. Her fingertips traced the lines of tattoo just below his eyes and trailed down to his angular jaw.

As her hand slipped away, he caught and pressed her hand to his face. ‘Why did you do that? You know I can’t die.’

‘You don’t know that.’ She tried to shrug, only to groan, feeling blood bubble up in her throat as blistering pain radiated from the wound in her abdomen. ‘That bullet was from the dragon.’

For a moment, in the midst of battle with nothing between the Commodore’s musket and Kisame, she had forgotten that he didn’t need her to cover his back anymore. Old habits were hard to shake, and he was her oldest habit of all. In the twelve years of chasing after the Monster of the Hidden Mist, not once had she ever thought of Kisame as a monster.

He would always be the man she had fallen love with.

‘Why Sakura?’ Kisame hissed. His gaze held hers with desperate intensity. ‘Why would you _die_ for me?’

‘You saved my life once before,’ mumbled Sakura. The fever that kept her burning hot was fading, replaced by a chilling cold that spread throughout her body and numbed her to the bone. ‘Thought I’d return the favour.’

Her arm felt heavy, weighed down and sluggish as she moved her other hand the collar of her shirt. Her fingers were wet with blood and slipped against her skin as she fumbled for the silver chain around her neck.

She grasped the ring in her hand and tugged with the last of her strength. With less effort than needed, the chain broke. ‘Here.’

Kisame’s eyes widened as Sakura’s hand opened to reveal the ring. The yellow sapphire glowed bright in the dying sunset, the magic in the ring sparking to life at finally being reunited with its owner.

‘You kept it after all this time?’ The frown between his brow intensified into a deep furrow.

‘Yes,’ replied Sakura, voice falling quieter with every word she forced out. She couldn’t remember a time, before all of this, when she had seen Kisame rendered with disbelief. ‘Now it’s time to return it to you.’

‘You and your sentimental attachments,’ muttered Kisame. ‘You should have thrown it into the ocean.’

A weak puff of laughter left Sakura. ‘What kind of person throws their lover’s ring away?’

For the first time Sakura saw regret flicker across Kisame’s expression. It was bitter and filled with longing all at the same time. He answered in a whisper, ‘the kind that suffered a betrayal from the one who loved them in return.’

The smile on her face quivered with pain. Whether it was from the gaping hole in her stomach or from his words, she wasn’t sure. It didn’t matter anymore. Her vision blurred and Kisame’s face faded as she sank into a memory, one that told of an Admiral who had fished a Lord’s daughter out of the sea. It was a story few knew or remembered, but Sakura would always remember it.

A muffled voice filtered through the darkening fog. It sounded like Tenten yelling at Kisame. Something about a bottle. That Kisame needed to take the bottle. Sakura tried to move her head. She wanted to tell Tenten that it was alright. She had promised not to use it. There was no need to use the bottle. That this was her choice. She closed her eyes. The darkness pulled her down and it felt like sinking into the arms of the sea.

***

Sakura looked around her. She was back in the lair of the dragon god. The horizon was still a line in the distance. The water was still a flat plane as far as the eye could see. The sky was still a perpetual mix of purples and pinks of a twilight that would never change.

Only it was different. She couldn’t explain how she knew this. The difference was deep in her bones. An inherent truth. She needed to keep walking. That was what she did the last time she was here. She walked forward, pulled by an inexplicable force that she could not resist. The silence was deafening in her ears. Her feet moved, the water splashed and rippled, but it made no noise.

_I am not..._

Sakura’s head jerked to the right. It was like a whisper. His voice. She turned in a circle, trying to find the source of his voice.

_I am not giving you up this time..._

She kept walking, but the closer she got to the horizon the harder it was to hear him.

_I promised to always keep you safe._

A bright yellow glow at Sakura’s left caught her attention. She looked down to see a glow coming from within the closed fist of her left hand. A line of red thread was tied to her ring finger. She followed the thread and saw that it led to the entrance of a cavern behind her. It was made of white. Snow and ice that should have melted in this place. Sakura frowned. The cavern hadn’t been there before. She hadn’t even known she was holding something in the first place. She opened her hand and in the middle of her palm was Kisame’s ring.

Sakura slipped Kisame’s ring onto her finger. A tug started at her abdomen. A sharp sting that morphed into a burning ache deep inside her. Her knees shook, but she stayed standing and pressed her hand to where the pain was most scorching in intensity. Blood and something silvery stained the palm of her hand. She groaned as flashes of a battle flickered through her head. A musket. A single shot. _Kisame_. She took a bullet for him. She saved him.

_Sakura?_

His voice was louder. Clearer than before, more solid in the sibilance and hard consonant of her name.

‘Kisame?’ Her voice wavered. She wanted to see him so badly. She wanted to relive the kiss they had shared. She wanted to _live._

Sakura looked at the horizon. The compulsion to walk forward had disappeared. All she felt was the tugging at her finger, the one with the thread tied around it, and the warmth emanating from the ring. A reminder of Kisame.

She turned around and with her back to the horizon, Sakura walked to the cavern entrance. She wasn’t ready to meet the dragon god again. Not yet.

***

Pirates were a suspicious lot.

The stories told of the Pirate Captain of the Southern Seas. The one with pink hair and emerald green eyes. They said she journeyed to the other side where the dragon god presided and lived to tell the tale. Then there were the ones that said she had died saving the man she loved and was brought back to life. Some said it was Ryūjin who brought her back to life. Others said it was magic in a single silver drop filled with her lover’s desire for her to live.

It didn’t matter what version of the story was told. Pirates and sailors alike knew to watch for the colours of the Pirate Captain as they sailed to the south. If they were ever in doubt of her identity, all they had to do was look for the ring of yellow sapphire on the fourth finger of her left hand. If that didn’t convince them, then they had to be careful of the Monster of the Hidden Mist who never left her side.


End file.
